Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-02-02
AN OLD MANS STORY.
Tramps from St. Paul to Butte in Nine
Weeks.

and detected. Business being dull, the
barkeeper noticed the tired expression or
the mans face and prohered him q glass o.
beer. 1t was accepted, and another fol-
lowed. The beer had the effect oil making
came interested, and at first received his
statements with incredulity; but the old
man proved the truth Of every word and it
~astounded him. As the trains run the
distance from st. Paul to Butte is a little
over 1000 miles, and the fact that it was
walked by q man apparently near four
his journey one Of the most remarkable ON
record.
II am q farmer,' said the old man, land
have worked many years in Stephenson
County, Illinois: Last June I made a
trip to the new Gogebic iron district in the
peninsula of Michigan. While work, for q
time, was easily procured, my age was
against me. was unable to perform the
hard work OF q miner, and was soon out Of
steady employment. I worked at odd jobs
for several weeks. then tool sick. In a few
ten dollars. Thinking that I might
find work in st. Paul or Minneapolis better
suited to my strength, I started for the
former place, arriving there in the latter
part Of October. I visited the labor agen.
| cies and enrolled myself as an applicant for
anykind ofhonest work that might turn
up. One agent-an honest one-told me
that l was too old to be seeking work, that
no ono would hire me when SO many young
men were hunting something to do. I soon
discovered that he told the truth. I was
as willing as any of the men who were hired
in scores every day, but my appearance
was against me I wanted to work for M
board, but nobody wanted me. By this
time my little store of money was nearly
exhausted. ] had lived frugally and
earned a few dollars by carrying in coal
and shoveling TO- from sidewalks. While
I was half crazed by the hopelessness of my
future, I resolved to 60 to Oregon, and from
there to California. Where, at least. il /
employment, I would not suffer from the
intense cold that prevails in St. Paul six
months in the year. Nine weeks ago I
started to carry out my resolution, and
my subsequent experience has been a try
ing one.
Tears gathered in the old mans eyes as
he called the incidents OF his long tramp,
and his voice was frequently broken as he
.recounted them.
had but a dollar and a hall when l left
the freight yards of the Manitoba road at
st. Paul behind me, and started up the
tracks Of that road. / soon left the
the country, with the desolate, |
snow-clad fields around me, 1 would have
turned back; but I knew that nothing but
cold and hunger awaited me on the return. /!
and it could not be much worse ahead. l
kept on, and that night slept in q barn.
Next day the weather had moderated, and
l = made pretty good Roadway. l reached
Fargo, Dakota, in ten days. Here my
troubles recommended. l had but a dime |
when I arrived there. and it was a bitter
cold afternoon. I was hungry, and spent
place, sought the police station for a nights
lodging. This was granted me. The next
morning I resumed my journey. and If you |
have never Travelled the blizzard-swept
prairies of Northern Dakota in winter you
know nothing Of the intensity OF cold. I
was compelled to walk last to keep my |
blood warm. When I arrived at
Valley City. a kind-hearted brakeman
placed me in q box-car and I made James
town. At this place I earned a dollar un-
loading coal from a fiat car. and with the
my vest l started out for Bismarck. As l
climbed the high, rolling divide between
Jim River and the Missouri the wind blew
gale. and the weather being terribly
cold, l thought would perish. Meeting a
neal q little town called
Steele, he kindly assisted me to his shack"
where I remained " days, and in a
easur recovered. In two days more I
made Bismarck. Here, not having enough
money to pay my fare to Mandan,
so ero tr"mp' tn. not r.; Ssjos a1 sq;dss
which a the Missouri, 1 started
the ice, When nearly over Istepped
on an air hole, or rotten piece OF ice, and
vent into the water up to my shoulders.
It was lucky for me that l was near the
bank, where the water was shall.
low. After considerable exertion l man.
aged to scramble out. 1t is nearly three
miles from the river to Mandan, and being
wet, my clothing iroze to my
skin before 1 could make the town. Reach
ing the rouDd-house of the Northern Pa
kindly gave me an order on a hotel for a
board. There I was enabled to dry
clothing. The next day I started up
The Heart River Valley. The country is
tbinly settled. and at this season Of the
year desolate. I made Glendive, then
Miles City and Billings without mishap.
Being asked how he managed to live,
II begged for food and offered my
labor in exchange for it. To tell you the
truth, I never was very hungry while on the
road. The railroad section men and their
were very kind to me-, and seldom
fused me food. I slept in abandoned
and empty box cars, but sometimes
have not slumbered q wink for forty
hours at a stretch.
But to return to my journey. After
Billings, meeting q tramp, he told
that the Grow Indians were furnished
rec transportation on all trains through
heir reservation, md advised me to dis.
,uiss myself as one OF them and get on
BOARD q train at the next station for Liv
peston. He said that he had frequently
,ecured a free ride by that means. Then he
.dded that tho genuine aborigines get
very angry when they discover . white
nan im~personating one of their tribe, and
hat it Is no uncommon thing to lind the
Of q blanketed and painted tramp
ying beside the track. where they had